Summer Highlights: Chamber Music, Bach, and Tour with Payare
This summer, Alisa performs in numerous chamber and orchestral settings across the U.S. and Europe, beginning with duo recitals with her longtime friend and collaborator, pianist Inon Barnatan. Multiple programs focusing on transcriptions of works by Brahms and Shostakovich, as well as repertoire from their acclaimed albums together, are featured at the Ravinia Festival (June 7), the Minnesota Beethoven Festival (July 7), and the Aspen Music Festival and School (July 9). The duo reunites later in the summer at La Jolla SummerFest (July 31–Aug 5), where Barnatan is Music Director.
Alisa also focuses on Bach’s solo Cello Suites this summer, including the complete set over two performances at Bravo! Vail (July 13 & 14), a complete performance of all six on one program at the Edinburgh International Festival (Aug 22), and the first three suites at Denmark’s Tivoli Festival (Aug 24). Finally, she performs Gabriela Ortiz’s 2026 Grammy-winning Dzonot concerto with her husband, Rafael Payare, and his Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM), first at Montreal’s Festival de Lanaudière (July 18) and a month later on tour to Edinburgh, Aarhus, and Hamburg (Aug 20–28).
These festival dates continue a triumphant season for Alisa that has included a cover feature in The Strad; a yearlong residency at London’s Southbank Centre; the continuation of her groundbreaking six-part multisensory solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS,” at venues on both sides of the Atlantic including Carnegie Hall; and the UK premiere of Ortiz’s Dzonot concerto, a work written for her that she premiered and recorded with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic that won a Grammy Award for the composer for best Contemporary Classical Composition.